BENJAMIN LYTAL - A Map of Tulsa; KARAN MAHAJAN - Family Planning

A Map of Tulsa is a stunning debut novel of first love set against the art scene of late-90s Tulsa by a former New Yorker editorial staffer. The first days of summer: Jim Praley is home from college, ready to unlock Tulsa's secrets. He drives the highways. He forces himself to get out of his car and walk into a bar. He's invited to a party. And there he meets Adrienne Booker; Adrienne rules Tulsa, in her way. A high-school dropout with a penthouse apartment, she takes a curious interest in Jim. Through her eyes, he will rediscover his hometown: its wasted sprawl, the beauty of its late nights, and, at the city's center, the unsleeping light of its skyscrapers. In the tradition of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Map of Tulsa is elegiac, graceful, and as much a story about young love as it is a love letter to a classic American city.

Benjamin Lytal has written for the Wall Street Journal, the London Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, Bookforum, the Believer, McSweeney’s, Fence, the Daily Beast, and the Nation. For four years he wrote the New York Sun's "Recent Fiction" column. Originally from Tulsa, Lytal currently lives in Chicago.

In Family Planning, Rakesh Ahuja, a Government Minister in New Delhi, is beset by problems: thirteen children and another on the way; a wife who mourns the loss of her favorite TV star; and a teenaged son with some really strong opinions about family planning. To make matters worse, looming over this comical farrago are secrets—both personal and political—that threaten to push the Ahuja household into disastrous turmoil. Following father and son as they blunder their way across the troubled landscape of New Delhi, Karan Mahajan brilliantly captures the frenetic pace of India's capital city to create a searing portrait of modern family life.

Karan Mahajan was born in 1984 and grew up in New Delhi, India. His first novel Family Planning was published in 9 countries and was a finalist for the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR’s All Things Considered, and other publications. He is currently an MFA candidate at the Michener Center in UT Austin.

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